Have you ever searched through old vintage cookbooks and found some recipe treasures worthy of revival? I found a tomato bisque recipe from one of my mother-in-law’s old recipe books. She has prepared this tomato bisque for her family for years. I made a few ingredient twists, and the results were better than I expected. This newly developed coconut tomato bisque is creamy with intense flavors from the herbs I chose. Better yet, this version is both vegan and gluten-free.
New cooking methods, tools, and knowledge about healthy eating can easily make those vintage recipe books obsolete. Also, the lack of high quality appetizing images often results in overlooking a treasure worth resurrecting. There’s no question that it takes more time to find recipes in old cookbooks than searches on Pinterest or Yummly. However, when I need to take a break from my iPhone, especially before bedtime, I like to hunt for lost treasures and seek inspiration there. I then lean back and think about how I can apply this to my creative work.
I know our family likes creamy smooth soups. With all these fresh vine ripe tomatoes sitting on my kitchen counter, there’s no reason I can’t do a makeover on the tomato bisque that my mother-in-law used to make. To make it vegan, I used full-fat coconut milk and vegan butter. The texture of the final coconut tomato bisque is absolutely rich and creamy. Stirring in a bunch of chopped fresh basil, after the bisque was cooked, definitely gave the entire bisque a flavor boost.
If you like tomato bisque, this is the one you will want to drown yourself in. Look at those pictures. If those pictures were in your vintage cookbook, it would be the most worn out book on the shelf.
Besides the creamy coconut tomato bisque, I have something really cool to offer you today! I mentioned earlier that both Pinterest and Yummly are good recipe searching tools. You’re more likely, though, to be familiar with Pinterest than Yummly. I’d like to describe them this way; If you think of Pinterest as being a social destination for sharing recipes then I’d describe Yummly as being a Kitchen tool for finding recipes that are relevant to your chosen preferences. I like them both, but I want to tell you more about Yummly. It has some really unique features that I like very much.
Let me assume you have no idea what Yummly is. The first thing you need to do is to create an account at Yummly.com. From there you can choose your taste preferences, such as cuisine, cooking skills, diet, allergies, and even disliked ingredients. When you visit a blog and find a recipe you like, you can add the recipe by clicking on the yum button. I’m a publisher on Yummly so you can easily find all my “yum” recipes in my collection there. By the way, Yummly has #1 iPhone, iPad, and Android apps so it’s easy to be accessed anywhere.
If you’re a food blogger, it’s important to have the yummly button installed along with all your social share icons on your site. This way all your yummly readers can yum your recipes, resulting in your recipes being shared with more people. I’m using Social Warfar on this blog that helps me to track how many shares I have on each recipe. You can also use AddToAny or Simple Share buttons. Do you want to have an opportunity to deliver your recipe to 15 million visitors on yummly? It’s time to install the yummly button now!
Based on those recipes you saved in your collections (also called Yums) and your taste preferences, your screen will be filled with recommended recipes you’ll love. Not only does yummly do simple recipe searches, but it will also find recipes you can make right now based on what you have on hand. For instance, add a few ingredients you have and don’t have and it will select the recipes you can make based on that as well as match your taste preferences. I said it’s really unique. One more thing I have to tell you is that unlike Pinterest, you won’t have any followers, and you don’t follow anybody; just your taste preference.
I hope you’ll give both my coconut tomato bisque and Yummly a try. Leave a comment below and let me know about your Yummly experience!
- ½ cup chopped yellow onion
- 3 tablespoons vegan butter
- 1½ teaspoons dill weed
- 2 teaspoons oregano
- 7 vine ripe tomatoes peeled and cut to wedges (see note)
- ¼ teaspoon white pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 can full-fat coconut milk
- 1 cup water
- 1 tablespoon all-purpose gluten-free flour
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil
- 2 basil sprigs for garnishing
- Heat 1 tablespoon of vegan butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until the butter is melted. Sauté chopped onion until transluscent, along with dill weed and oregano. Approximate 3 minutes.
- Add tomatoes, white pepper, salt, and the remaining vegan butter. Continue to sauté for another 2 minutes.
- Transfer the sauteed onion and tomatoes into a pressure cooker or saucepan. Add the remaining ingredients except basil and save 1 tablespoon coconut milk for garnishing.
- Pressure cooker method: Follow the instructions to your pressure cooker and cook 2 minutes with very low heat. Let pressure drop on its own.
- Saucepan method: Bring the liquid to a boil; stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and simmer for 20 minutes.
- Let the cooked tomato bisque cool for 5 minutes. Blend with a hand blender until smooth. Stir in chopped basil. Garnish with coconut milk swirl and basil sprigs. Serve warm.
To peel tomatoes: Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice and set it aside. In a saucepan, bring 5 cups of water to a boil. Drop several tomatoes and let them stand in the boiling water for 45 to 60 seconds. The skin should start to wrinkle. Quickly transfer the tomatoes into the prepared ice water with a slotted ladle. The skin should peel off easily.
Can you use canned tomatoes if you don’t have fresh? If so, how much? Thanks!
Yes, you definitely can. I would use one 15-oz can of whole, peeled tomatoes to replace the 7 tomatoes in this ingredients. If your tomato has too much juice, it may make the soup a little bit of thin. If that is the case, you can add more (2 teaspoons at a time) flour to make it thicker. I hope this will help.
Was looking for something to do with a ton of late season tomotos from our CSA. Came across your recipe and just finished making it. It’s PHENOMENAL!!!!
Had to stop mid bowl to thank you for this recipe. So simple, but incredibly flavorful!
We will be making it again soon!
Wow, so glad to hear that, Jenny! We have harvested a lot of tomatoes lately. I made some enchilada sauce, homemade ketchup, pizza sauce. You can freeze them for later use. You are right, this coconut tomato bisque is absolutely flavorful. I still have a basket of tomatoes that I’m going to convert them to this soup and freeze the extra for the winter.
Tried this recipe today and LOVED IT! I forgot to peel the tomatoes though, but it still came out lovely. This is definitely one of my favorite soups. Thank you for sharing, Joyce.
You are very welcome, Brenda! I’m so glad you enjoyed the soup.
I tried this recipe. It came out very well. It is very flavorful. It was not as thick as restaurant one but that could be because my tetra pack coconut milk was not full fat. thank you so much for this recipe. I will definitely recommend this to my friends and make it again many times.
Add more flour (gluten-free if needed) to make it thicker. I hope that helps!